Heatsink fan..which way to move the air?

[killians45]

*sigh* you CAN NOT suck air THROUGH a heat sink. Also, if you would like to be condenscending, then it seems to me you are fairly familiar with sucking and blowing. Sarcasm is nice, when you know the details. Maybe I'm wrong, but thats what it seems you are trying to do. Tell you what, take a heat sink, now try and suck air through it. Figure, give you a good 3 minutes before your face begins to turn blue. If you want to get scientific about it, I can oblige. The molecular structure of aluminum OR copper is to compact/close together to allow molecules of air to just pass through it, its not made of... say... cotton or some other fabric. I say again it is NOT possible to suck air THROUGH a heat sink. Also, blowing warm air from the transfer of heat from the heat sink back to the heat sink will NOT increase the heat sinks temperature. Not so say it will not damage anything, because it will. Not for reason that the warm air will hurt it, but is in FACT because the air is not able to transfer the heat by thermal exchange fast enough to cool the heat sink fast enough. As for sucking and blowing, for a fan it's pretty much the same thing, its just doing it in different directions. Best way to set it up is have a fan on the heat sink, a fan intake to bring in outside air, and then on the other side an exhaust fan to cary out the warmer air. THAT is called convection.

 

[Nubius]

don't worry killian.....I got ya man at on back: yes its not sucking air THROUGH the heatsink but rather around it...but you gotta realize I don't think people are referring 'through' as literally THROUGH it like you were saying cotton...think of it like a train I guess...the heatsink is the manufacturer or Boxes....if you have a slow moving train (air flow) then it'll take much longer to pick up those boxes and move them along, if you got a faster moving train (faster air flow) then it can get the package and get going quicker....BUT on a differente note...is that train already loaded with a few boxes? Meaning the air is already slightly warm? Then it wouldn't be able to pick up as many boxes from the factory as a train that comes straight from the icelands that has no packages on it yet....that may be a horrible analogy but oh well....

I understand what you're saying Killian, I just can't word it as good and I do know that its not sucking THROUGH, but like I said I don't know how many people think the air is actually going THROUGH it and not just the air molecules passing by it and transferring the heat from one medium to another...I don't know I'm getting all confused at this point...can I just stand by your side with a smile and a nod?

 

[killians45]

heh, that last comment wasn't towards you Mostly wanted to make sure the fella didn't think that with a fan "sucking" air from the heatsink didn't also suck heat, because thats not possible. Just annoys me someone coming in being sarcastic but not reading the entire post. I can see posting something helpful, and then realizing you didn't read into it deep enough, but being a smart @ss and not reading the whole thing???! Yeah, I realize he wasn't talking about sucking through the heat sink (thats why I said was being sarcastic), but then elp comes up and says that. So either he decided to just spout some nonsense off and not read the entire post and just start flaming (if that is what he was doing, if not then my bad), or he REALLY believes that you can suck heat and air through a heat sink. Heh, either way... kind of a wasted post...

 

[Nubius]

Hugs all around!

 

[killians45]

lol

 

[jseber1982]

ok maybe i didnt think it through.. just,, when you have air moving through a cpu heatsink,, the air that is comming out is usually warmer than than it was when it was going in.. so i just sorta thought that by drawing the warmer air away from the heatsink, it would therefor keep it just a Teenie teenie bit cooler than blowing through the heatsink down towards the board and keepin the warmer air inside.

lol sorry if i dont know all the technical terms, im not an engineer

 

[jseber1982]

ok so basically this for all ya good smart ppl..... my heatsink is a thermaltake 11+... should i have it blowing towards the board, or have it sucking air away from the board THROUGH THE HEATSINK*** lol ehe

thanks

 

[jseber1982]

I also got the side of my case off right now too. so i figure blowin the air straight out would help. on top of that, with a fan blowing straight on the heatsink, it creates a vortex right above where the core is, so i mean, doesnt move any air right over the core.. but yet neither does sucking lol

 

[AND_YOU_ARE]

In conclusing blowing is more efficent in my book. I added a 90mm fan above the cpu fan on the side pannel of my case to blow cool air in from the out side. Keeping the cpu cooler than using old air from the front of the case.

 

[killians45]

yes, think of it like a breeze. Say, facing the front of the case, you have a fan in the front (takes the place of one of the bays), a fan on the heat sink, and a fan in the back. Have the fan in the front inverted so it is blowing air INTO the case. Then have the back fan blowing OUT of the case, that way you get air flowing across the heat sink and convection is much more effective. The heat sink fan will increase the air flow over the heat sink. Thats the best route

ps think of convection as air current.